Is the Hearing Loss & Tinnitus Market Overvalued?

I would like to start a thread of the alleged value of the hearing loss and tinnitus market. This is, if an effective treatment comes along for either.

The hearing loss market is valued (not sure the approximate value) as a multi million market with the tinnitus market valued even more.

What I would like to ask opinions about is whether these markets are overvalued? Here I have some points to why this may be.

- Not everyone wears a hearing aid and is not particularly bothered by hearing loss. Some who have had it for years have managed to get along and it is the new norm.

- Not everyone with tinnitus is bothered by it. I have seen real life examples of this. They have simply become accustomed to it and are not particularly bothered about getting a treatment for it if it was to become available tomorrow.

- For those with state care such as the NHS this may be a treatment that you will have to pay for, perhaps even hearing loss, that may lead to people going for the traditional methods of hearing aids. Likewise, insurance companies in the USA may not cover such treatments.

 

It is well known that hearing loss can cause tinnitus and when a person is fitted with a hearing aid/s the tinnitus often improves. This is because the brain no longer has to increase its internal gain to hear sounds from the outside environment. A hearing test will usually determine whether a person has hearing loss.

In the UK, all treatment at NHS hospitals and clinics is free at point of delivery. This also includes hearing aids, white noise generators and all other equipment that a patient might need.

Michael

 

Not sure why it would be overvalued, everyone with hearing loss that affects speech recognition is VERY bothered by it. They don't wear hearing aids because there is a social stigma with hearing aids (well, at least for younger people) or because it does not really cure hearing loss, only amplifies sound.

The hearing loss market is definitely larger than the tinnitus market I think, not the other way around. Look at all the elderly people that have difficulties hearing.

 

To comment on the three items you bring forward;

Some people choose to be bald over a wig, the same choose to cope with their hearing loss over using hearing aids. But, if you could offer them a cure, surely a large part would be interested. Hence I think, besides the part of population readily using hearing aids, an additional part which currently impaired would prefer a drug treatment of hearing aids.

Though you grow accustomed to it, doesn't mean you wouldn't prefer silence. I personally know a few people, living perfectly well with their tinnitus and are not bothered by it. But when you ask, if they would be interested in a cure, they're all. And willing to skip a holiday to pay for it.

Off course I can't look into someone else's wallet, but if you can afford the latest iPhone, you could afford a 1000 USD treatment as well. Thus, I think substantial money is in the market of tinnitus resolution and hearing recovery (especially the latter, since I think it would imply tinnitus resolution as well).

I don't think it's a multi million dollar market, rather a 10 figure market (given hearing recovery drugs will make aids obsolete and eliminate tinnitus).

 

I thought everyone was aware of this estimation :
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359644605035944
Hearing loss and tinnitus: 250 million people and a US$10 billion potential market

 

10 Billion is conservative.

If you had a treatment for hearing loss, you could walk into DARPA and walk out with a billion dollar contract there and then. The amount of army vets that are on welfare for tinnitus and hearing damage is shocking. Imagine you could get even half of them back to employment and spending again. It would be like injecting steroids into the economy. Its not just the downside, its the upside.


Thank you for the link, I have not seen this paper before.

 

@jeff W: well done, you managed to get the editorial. I only managed to get the title of this paper.

By the way, I also found this paper:
https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12913-017-2527-2